A digital still camera (DSC) is configured to record an image in the digital data format using a CCD. A liquid crystal display mounted on the DSC allows a photographer to view and delete images that have been shot. One applicable procedure utilizing a general-purpose personal computer is output of image data that has been shot by the DSC, such as displaying on a monitor and printing with a printer.
Each DSC, however, has different characteristic in the color brightness or the color tone of a subject corresponding to manufacturer and a type of a device. The difference in the characteristics also occurs depending on a type of an image output device. In many cases, intentions of the photographer are not reflected on resulting output images due to those differences.
Furthermore, preferences are varied from user to user. Actualizing ideal characteristic of the color reproduction on the DSC and the printer does not always means that it is suitable for the preference of the user. The user is thus required to retouch the image data individually in order to obtain suitable output image for his or her preference. Under some output environments and user preferences, adjusting the picture quality in a uniform manner is required for a plurality of image data. For example, when the output environment tends to cause the output image to be bluish, the user is required to apply uniform processing to respective image data in order to control a bluish color according to his or her preference. In general, adjustment of the image data is labor-consuming, and thus imposes a great burden when being performed for each image data.
Those problems were described herein exemplifying the DSC; however, similar problems arise in an image data generation apparatus, such as a digital video camera and a scanner.
The object of the present invention is thus to provide a technique that ensures flexible image processing on a plurality of image data integrally.